“HOW THE SHORT MAN OVERCAME HIS SHORT COMING”
LUKE 19:1-10
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector
and was rich.
3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the
crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see
him, for he was about to pass that way.
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone
in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus
said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
10 For
the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Charles K. Johnson was a
man who wasn’t going to change no matter what. For much of his adult life
he served as the president of the International Flat Earth Research Society. I
know it’s hard to believe, but there are people today who still believe that the earth is really flat. In an interview that he gave before he died back in 1996 Johnson
said, “I’ve been a flat-earther all my life. When I saw the globe
in grade school, I didn’t accept it. To me it was illogical.”
Some people aren’t
going to change no matter what. On the other hand, some people want to change
but they’re convinced that they can’t. They can’t change. For
example, when was the last time you heard someone say, “I wish I could change, but I can’t. That’s just the way I am.” Do you ever say that
yourself?
I wish I wasn’t such
a worrier but I can’t help it. That’s just the way I am.
I wish I was more patient
with people, but I can’t help it. That’s just the way I am.
I wish I wasn’t such
a workaholic but I can’t help it. That’s just the way I am.
The next time you’re
tempted to say that I have a little advice for you. Don’t turn to Jesus
in prayer and say that to him because he’ll just tell you that you’re wrong.
He might tell you to go and take a good look at Zacchaeus. You see, Zacchaeus
changed big time. It happened when he met Jesus that day in Jericho. Zacchaeus went from being a money grubbing
tax collector to an incredibly generous man of God. “Lord,” Zacchaeus
said, “half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” How’s that for a big time change?
Zacchaeus changed that day
and it makes you wonder. What made it possible for Zacchaeus to change that day? Was
it determination and an overwhelming desire to change? That was certainly part
of it. There’s no question that Zacchaeus was a very determined man.
Zacchaeus was a lot like
the insurance salesman up in Nova Scotia whose boss gave
him an earful one day. The boss complained that the salesman wasn’t being
aggressive enough when it came to selling insurance. The salesman disagreed thought
and quickly found a way to prove his boss wrong. He went over to a window in
the office. Outside the window a couple of workers on some scaffolding were washing
the window. The salesman wrote a note and held it up to the window. The note asked “Would you like to buy some life insurance?” The
workers said they would listen to what the salesman had to say if joined them on the scaffolding. Now mind you, the workers at that point washing windows on
the 17th floor of the building. That didn’t stop the salesman
though. He joined the workers with the help of a cable on the roof that lowered
him down to the scaffolding. His efforts paid off too. One of the workers bought a $50,000 life insurance policy.
Zacchaeus was like that salesman. He was a man with a lot of determination. He
was a man with an overwhelming desire to change. That’s obvious when you look at the fact that he went to see Jesus
that day even though he knew it could be dangerous for him to do that. You see
the people in that crowd really hated Zacchaeus. They hated him for two reasons. First of all, they hated him because his job as a tax collector meant that he was
working with and for the Romans. That made him a traitor in their eyes. The other reason why the people hated Zacchaeus also had to do with his job as a tax
collector. Because he was a tax collector Zacchaeus was squeezing money out them
and making it difficult for them to survive. If you think taxes are bad today back then they were worse; much worse.
So, Zacchaeus knew that the
people in that crowd hated him. He knew that there was a good chance they were
going to sneer at him. He knew that there was a change that they might even throw a few stones at him while he was up in that
sycamore tree. Zacchaeus didn’t lat that stop him though. He was determined to see Jesus. So, he climbed that sycamore
tree and his determination paid off.
Before you can change you
have to really want to change. You can’t be like the man who wanted to loose some weight. Everyone knew that he wanted to loose some weight. That’s
why his coworkers were surprised one day when he came to work with a big gooey coffee cake.
When someone asked the man what he was doing with the big gooey coffee cake he had a ready explanation. “Well,” the man said, “on my way to work this morning I saw this bakery will all these
big gooey coffee cakes in the window. So, I decided to share my dilemma with
the Lord. ‘Lord,’ I said, ‘you know I’m trying to loose weight here, but if you really want me to
have one of those big gooey coffee cakes let me find a parking space right in front of that bakery.’ And sure enough on my sixth time around the block there it was.”
Before you can change you
have to really want to change. Determination alone, however, wasn’t what
made it possible for Zacchaeus to change that day. Zacchaeus was able to change
because of what Jesus said and did that day. So, what was it that Jesus did that
day? He looked up into that sycamore tree and said, “Zacchaeus hurry and
come down for I must stay with you today.”
Of all the people Jesus could
have stayed with that day he chose Zacchaeus.
Everyone else hated Zacchaeus. Jesus had compassion for him.
Everyone else saw the bad
in Zacchaeus. Jesus saw the good in him.
Everyone else wanted nothing
to do with Zacchaeus. Jesus wanted to spend some time with him.
“Zacchaeus, hurry and
come down for I must stay with you today.” Zacchaeus was able to change because Jesus believed in him. That’s what made it possible for Zacchaeus to stand there and say “Lord, half of my goods I
give to the poor and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I restore it four fold.”
Jesus believed in Zacchaeus
and because of that for the first time in a long time Zacchaeus believed in himself.
That’s what made it possible for him to change. Some of you may remember Celeste Holm. She was an actress who won an Academy Award back in 1947 for her role in the movie “Gentleman’s
Agreement.” She once said something that Jesus would have agreed with wholeheartedly. She said that, “We live by encouragement, and we die without it – slowly,
sadly, angrily.”
Many years ago a teacher
was asked to tutor a young boy. This tutoring assignment was a little different
though because the boy was in the hospital recovering from extensive burns over much of his body. Unfortunately, the tutor wasn’t prepared for what she saw when she walked into his room. She wanted to turn around and leave as quickly as she could, but she didn’t. “I’m your tutor,” she said. “I’m
here to help you with your nouns and adverbs.” The next day when the tutor
arrived a nurse on the unit stopped her and asked, “What did you do to that boy?”
The tutor was sure that she had done something wrong the previous day and began to apologize, but the nurse stopped
her. “You don’t understand,” she said. “We’ve been very worried about him, but ever since you were here yesterday his whole attitude
has changed. He’s fighting back and responding to the treatments. It’s as though he’s decided for the first time that he wants to live.” When the boy was asked about the change in attitude he began to cry and said, “They
wouldn’t send a tutor to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy would they?”
It’s really simple. People don’t change when you belittle them the way the people in the crowd belittled
Zacchaeus. People change when you believe in them the way Jesus believed in Zacchaeus. The way Jesus believes in you! Amen.
Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
November 4, 2007
